Seattle PI: Karl Rove, Koch Brothers -- on your TV, in your mailbox

March 7, 2011- The Crossroads GPS political committee, co-founded by Bush guru Karl Rove, is in my mailbox, on my TV screen and now on my radio at Whidbey Island. But it tells me nothing about who's putting up money to sway me.

Crossroads GPS will butt in a lot more next year: GPS and its partner American Crossroads have set out to raise $120 million to defeat President Obama, help Republicans capture the U.S. Senate and keep the House.

Karl has company. Charles and David Koch, billionaire heads of an oil-and-business conglomerate, plan to give and steer $88 million toward right-wing politicians and conservative causes in 2012. (Kudos to Ken Vogel of Politico for smoking out their plans.)

Crossroads GPS is already on the air with radio ads, targeting 22 congressional districts. It's taking Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., to task for having the nerve, gall and presumption to oppose gutting such programs as Women, Infants and Children and the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

If the Rove group reaches its target -- it raised $71 million in 2010, and spent $5.6 million here against Sen. Patty Murray -- the Crossroads committees will be the biggest financial players in 2012 outside presidential candidates themselves.

Unleashed by the Citizens United decision written by conservative activists on the U.S. Supreme Court, such committees can raise -- and hide -- unlimited sums of money. (Two of the Supremes, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, speak and hobnob at Koch political retreats.)

What's wrong with this? The airwaves are polluted, the judiciary compromised and democracy put up for sale. The goal is to reverse and roll back public health and environmental protection that began a century ago.

The amounts now "invested" in politics are staggering. Thanks to Eli Sanders' sleuthing at The Stranger, we recently learned that $47 million -- yeah, $47 million -- worth of TV spots ran on local TV stations in the 2010 "off-year" election.